大家好,我是英语干货君,马拉松阅读的发起者,精读精析自学英语的实践者。
今日名言分享:
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.“——Charles R. Swindoll
生活中10%是你将经历的事,而剩下的90%是你应对它的过程。”——查尔斯•斯温德尔
今天是On Writing Well马拉松阅读的第17天,继续精读精析第三章Clutter。
今天的精读内容,建议熟记:
  • clutter is the enemy. 
  • Beware, then, of the long word that's no better than the short word.
  • Beware of all the slippery new fad words:paradigm and parameter,prioritize and potentialize. They are all weeds that will smother what you write.
  • If you might add, add it. If it should be pointed out, point it out. If it is interesting to note, make it interesting.
  • Don't inflate what needs no inflating.


【原文通读】
建议先通读一遍,了解大意,看哪些表达会让你心存疑惑,或想深入探究。
Verbal camouflage reached new heights during General Alexander Haig's tenure as President Reagan's secretary of state. Before Haig nobody had thought of saying "at this juncture of maturization" to mean "now." He told the American people that terrorism could be fought with "meaningful sandionary teeth" and that intermediate nuclear missiles were "at the vortex of cruciality." As for any worries that the public might harbor, his message was "leave it to Al," though what he actually said was: "We must push this to a lower decibel of public fnattion. I don't think there's much of a learning curve to be achieved in this area of content." 
I could go on quoting examples from various fields—every profession has its growing arsenal of jargon to throw dust in the eyes of the populace. But the list would be tedious. The point of raising it now is to serve notice that clutter is the enemy. Beware, then, of the long word that's no better than the short word: "assistance" (help), "numerous" (many), "facilitate" (ease), "individual" (man or woman), "remainder" (rest), "initial" (first), "implement" (do), "sufficient" (enough), "attempt" (try), "referred to as" (called) and hundreds more. Beware of all the slippery new fad words: paradigm and parameter, prioritize and potentialize. They are all weeds that will smother what you write. Don't dialogue with someone you can talk to. Don't interface with anybody. 
Just as insidious are all the word clusters with which we explain how we propose to go about our explaining: "I might add; "It should be pointed out," "It is interesting to note." If you might add, add it. If it should be pointed out, point it out. If it is interesting to note, make it interesting are we not all stupe-fied by what follows when someone says, 'This will interest you'? Don't inflate what needs no inflating: "with the possible exception of" (except), °due to the fact that' (because), "he totally lacked the ability to" (he couldn't), "until such time as (until), "for the purpose of" (for).

【原文精读】
精读提示:加粗为需要注意的表达,会给出参考翻译;其后若有(),则括号里的内容是对该表达进行解读,字体为红色标记为绿色的为建议熟记的内容;另外,为了阅读的流畅,会把要深入探究的内容标记为橙色背景,放在文章最后统一进行梳理。
Verbal camouflage reached new heights during General Alexander Haig's tenure as President Reagan's secretary of state. Before Haig nobody had thought of saying "at this juncture of maturization" to mean "now." He told the American people that terrorism could be fought with "meaningful sandionary teeth" and that intermediate nuclear missiles were "at the vortex of cruciality." As for any worries that the public might harbor, his message was "leave it to Al," though what he actually said was: "We must push this to a lower decibel of public fixation.I don't think there's much of a learning curve to be achieved in this area of content." 
【表达梳理&解读】
  1. Verbal camouflage reached new height 伪装的表达达到了一个新高度. verbal: 词语的; 言语的; camouflage:伪装 (注意reach new height 是表达最高级)
  2. tenure as President Reagan's secretary of state 任职为里根总统时的国务卿
  3. juncture 时刻
  4. vortex 涡旋
  5. harbor 有
  6. decibel 分贝
  7. learning curve 学习曲线

I could go on quoting examples from various fields—every profession has its growing arsenal of jargon to throw dust in the eyes of the populace. But the list would be tedious. The point of raising it now is to serve notice thatclutter is the enemy. Beware, then, of the long word that's no better than the short word: "assistance" (help), "numerous" (many), "facilitate" (ease), "individual" (man or woman), "remainder" (rest), "initial" (first), "implement" (do), "sufficient" (enough), "attempt" (try), "referred to as" (called) and hundreds more. Beware of all the slippery new fad words:paradigm and parameter, prioritize and potentialize. They are all weeds that will smother what you write. Don't dialogue with someone you can talk to. Don't interface with anybody. 
【表达梳理&解读】
  1. quoting examples from various fields 从不同领域引用例子
  2. profession 职业
  3. its growing arsenal of jargon 越来越多的行话
  4. throw dust in the eyes of the populace 把灰尘撒在民众的眼睛里
  5. tedious 单调沉闷的
  6. the point of raising it now is to serve notice that... 现在提出来的目的是通知. 
  7. Beware, then, of... 小心……(注意then是插入语,英语中的插入语很灵活)
  8. no better than...(no 和 not的使用是不一样的,要注意区别。)
  9. and hundreds more 还有更多(意思其实和and so on类似)
  10. all the slippery new fad words 所有那些狡猾的新潮用词(注意形容词的排序)
  11. paradigm and parameter, prioritize and potentialize  范式和参数;轻重缓急 
  12. Don`t dialogue with someone you can talk to.和别人说话就用talk, 不要说dialogue

Just as insidious are all the word clusters with which we explain how we propose to go about our explaining: "I might add; "It should be pointed out," "It is interesting to note." If you might add, add it. If it should be pointed out, point it out. If it is interesting to note, make it interesting; are we not all stupefied by what follows when someone says, 'This will interest you'? Don't inflate what needs no inflating: "with the possible exception of" (except),  "due to the fact that' (because), "he totally lacked the ability to" (he couldn't), "until such time as (until), "for the purpose of" (for).
【表达梳理&解读】
  1. Just as insidious are…… 同样会暗中为害的是……(注意as引起的倒装)
  2. stupefied 感到惊呆
  3. inflate 夸大

【深入探究】
as引起的倒装:
一、表语(词前习惯上不用冠词)+as /though+系动词
King as he was,he was unhappy.
Improbable as it seems,it’s true. 
Stupid as it sounds,I was so in love with her that I believed her. 
Raining hard as it is, I’m going out for a walk. 
Surrounded as we were by the enemy,we managed to march forward.             
二、adv+as/though +主谓
Much as I like Paris,I couldn’t live there. 
Fast as you read, you can’t finish the book in two days. 
Hard though they tried,they couldn’t make her change her mind.
三、V原形+as/though +主+ may,might,would,did 等情态动词或助动词(若表示情态意义,则选用情态动词;若陈述事实,则用 did,do 等助动词)。
Object as you may,I’ll go.  
Try as he might,he couldn’t solve the problem. 
Lose money as I did,we got a lot of experience. 
Fail in the election as he did,he became famous for his fiery speech against slavery. 

另外,在这几段中,作者William Zinsser指出了一些完全可以更简化的一些表达,单独梳理出来。各位读者回想一下你是否也曾滥用过这些所谓的“好词”?
  1. "assistance" (help), 
  2. "numerous" (many), 
  3. "facilitate" (ease), 
  4. "individual" (man or woman), 
  5. "remainder" (rest), 
  6. "initial" (first), 
  7. "implement" (do), 
  8. "sufficient" (enough), 
  9. "attempt" (try), 
  10. "referred to as" (called)
  11. "with the possible exception of" (except),  
  12. "due to the fact that' (because),
  13. "he totally lacked the ability to" (he couldn't),
  14. "until such time as (until),
  15. "for the purpose of" (for).
  16.  "at this juncture of maturization" to mean "now."


这次的On Writing Well第三章Clutter的精读精析就到此结束。
如果手里没有On Writing Well这本书,可以在公众号里回复:On Writing Well(不是留言!)获取该书电子版的下载链接。这本书是最好的英语写作指导书之一,条件允许的话,建议入手一本。
On Writing Well在豆瓣读书的评分:

    On  Writing Well京东购买链接:


最后,再回顾下这篇精读中建议熟记的内容(建议选择其中至少一个,翻译并留言,这样可以加深印象,也能一起学习讨论!)
  • clutter is the enemy. 
  • Beware, then, of the long word that's no better than the short word.
  • Beware of all the slippery new fad words:paradigm and parameter,prioritize and potentialize. They are all weeds that will smother what you write.
  • If you might add, add it. If it should be pointed out, point it out. If it is interesting to note, make it interesting.
  • Don't inflate what needs no inflating.
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